Friday, October 06, 2006
Funny Stuff From Dave Barry
"Miami loves to party. We party to celebrate when something good happens, such as winning the World Series, which we do, like clockwork, every six years. When something bad happens, we party to cheer ourselves up. When nothing is happening, we party because we are bored. If Fidel ever dies, Miami will not regain consciousness for decades. "
Stupid News Story of The Day
(Yeah...sorry about the mess.)
Man apologizes for courtroom feces
DULUTH, Minn. - A Chicago man apologized for spreading his feces around a courtroom during his trial on drug charges.
Vandale Amos Willis, 28, apologized Wednesday before being sentenced to more than 10 years in prison. Willis was convicted earlier of importation of a controlled substance, cocaine, and two other charges.
"Im going to take full responsibility for everything I did in Duluth," Willis told the court. "I want to apologize for everything I did in court. Im sorry, your honor."
He asked Judge David Sullivan to put him on probation. Sullivan told Willis his actions wouldn't be held against him, but there was no reason to depart from sentencing guidelines.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Funny Stuff From Dave Barry
"The weightlifting competition I saw was the women’s 63 kg class. I’m not sure whether this means the actual women weighed 63 kg or the weights they lifted weighed 63 kg. Or possibly the temperature in the weightlifting hall was 63 kg. There’s no way to know for sure without finding out what a “kg” is, and my belief, as an American, is that if I have to start understanding the metric system, then the terrorists have won."
Stupid News Story of The Day
(Well, I guess embalming won't be necessary.)
Body found in bed 5 years after death
VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian authorities have discovered the body of a man who apparently died at home in bed five years ago, a Vienna newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The corpse of Franz Riedl, thought to have been in his late 80s when he died, went undetected for so long because his rent had been paid by automatic order from the bank account into which he received his pension, the daily Kurier said.
Neighbors said there was no strange smell coming from Riedl's apartment and authorities who found the body after a court order was given to enter said his body appeared to have "mummified" and was well preserved.
"He had been frail and a woman had helped him," the husband of the apartment block's caretaker told Kurier, adding that mail had always piled up outside the pensioner's flat. "We thought he had moved in with her or gone to an old people's home."
Police said they were not certain as to exactly when the man had died, but that they had found only schilling notes in the apartment -- the currency used by Austria before the introduction of the euro on January 1, 2002.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Random Fact of The Day
The flea can jump 350 times its body length, that is like a human jumping the length of a football field.
Funny Stuff From Dave Barry
"I have come up with a sure-fire concept for a hit television show, which would be called "A Live Celebrity Gets Eaten by a Shark".
Stupid News Story of The Day
(Maybe next time, he'll just buy a postcard, or a nice keychain.)
Student flying with dynamite "souvenir" indicted
HOUSTON (Reuters) - A U.S. tourist who told airport inspectors that dynamite in his bags was a souvenir from South America has been charged with breaking two security laws and could face up to 10 years in prison and steep fines.
A grand jury returned a two-count indictment charging Howard MacFarland Fish, 21, with carrying an explosive on an aircraft and entering an airport in violation of security requirements, U.S. Attorney Don DeGabrielle said in a news release on Wednesday.
Fish, a student at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, was stopped at Houston Intercontinental Airport on August 25 on his way home from Argentina. Customs inspectors found a small stick of dynamite, a fuse and a blasting cap in his bags.
He told investigators he had picked up the items as souvenirs while visiting a silver mine in Argentina.
Carrying an explosive on an aircraft is a felony carrying maximum possible penalties of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 (132,544 pound) fine. Violating airport security is a misdemeanor carrying a maximum year in prison and a $100,000 fine,
No trial date has been set. Fish is free on $75,000 bond.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Random Fact of The Day
The most powerful electric eel is found in the rivers of Brazil, Columbia, Venezuela, and Peru, and produces a shock of 400-650 volts.
Funny Stuff From Dave Barry
"The French are not rude. They just happen to hate you. But that is no reason to bypass this beautiful country, whose master chefs have a well-deserved worldwide reputation for trying to trick people into eating snails. Nobody is sure how this got started. Probably a couple of French master chefs were standing around one day, and they found a snail, and one of them said: "I bet that if we called this something like `escargot,' tourists would eat it." Then they had hearty laugh, because "escargot" is the French word for "fat crawling bag of phlegm."
Stupid News Story of The Day
(Aww shucks.)
Irishman wins world oyster opening championship By Kevin Smith
GALWAY (Reuters) - Ireland was the proud winner on Saturday of the 2006 World Oyster Opening Championship, beating off competition from 17 other countries to open 30 oysters in the fastest time.
At 2 minutes 35 seconds, Irish restaurateur Michael Moran was five seconds ahead of Sweden's Hasse Johannesson and 46 seconds faster than Britain's Frederick Lindford.
"It's just great to bring it home for Ireland," said Moran, whose father Willie took the title twice in the 1970s and whose time of 1 minute 31 seconds is unbeaten.
"I put in a big effort and it paid off -- I can't believe it," Moran, 23, told Reuters.
The secret, he said, was a steady hand with the oyster knife.
"It has to be a smooth movement or you risk crunching the shell and then you get points taken off for grit," he said.
It was the first win for Ireland in 10 years but the country's 15th overall in the four-decade history of the competition, which has long been a major feature of the Galway Oyster Festival, now in its 52nd year.
"He was a bold man that first ate an oyster," observed 18th century Irish writer Jonathan Swift, and by that measure there were a lot of bold men -- and women -- gathered in the medieval "City of the Tribes" on Ireland's rugged west coast on Saturday.
"We reckon there are around 12,000 people here this year and they'll scoff somewhere in the region of 100,000 oysters in the four days of the festival," said organizer John Rabbitt.
The festival draws visitors from around the world, as much for the Irish "craic" -- dancing and drinking -- as for the oysters, which mollusk aficionados say derive a distinctive sweetness from Ireland's Atlantic waters.
"I've had more oysters than I've eaten in my life," said first-time British visitor Michael Codrington.
"At least 50 -- all washed down with a lot of Guinness."
The festival, dreamt up by a Galway hotelier to mark the start of the oyster season -- and drum up post-summer business -- has seen its share of famous visitors over the years.
In 1960, U.S. film director John Huston dropped by and in 1993 comedian Bob Hope delighted the crowd with a rendition of "Thanks for the Memories" in the city's main square.
This year the event is expected to generate around 7 million euros ($8.87 million) for the local economy.
Monday, October 02, 2006
What's this? An actual blog entry? Are you kidding?
Can it be? An actual blog entry? I know it has been a while since I last "blogged." Now that they keep me busy at work, I have had no actual time to blog. Let's face it. By the time I get home from work, my brain has had enough of thinking. Thus the blog slack-off.
I am lazy. This is a known fact.
It seems like we went from summer straight to winter in just a few days. Just last week, it was still in the 90's and today, it was cold all day long...and rainy. The colder weather is a big break for the firefighters tackling that once-monster fire that has plagued Southern California for nearly a month. Gosh. One day I got off of work and the sky was orange and brown with smoke from the fire. I thought there was a fire here in town, but it was the smoke from the Day Fire, which started near Ojai nearly a month ago and has since burned over 162,000 acres (it was started by someone who was burning trash, and the fire got out of control). It came really close to Lake of The Woods and Frazier Park, which is near where I used to live. Pretty scary. The fire is now over 90% contained, so let's hope it gets put out really soon.
The break in the heat is a welcome relief to me, but I wasn't quite ready for the rain. Damn my bones ache. I hate the rainy season for that reason.
We had our 2nd annual Department All Staff at the Rabobank Arena on Friday. It was an all-day event. It went pretty well. I really liked the guest speakers (Antwone Fisher and Josh Shipp), and my 2 workshops were pretty good. I would have liked the whole event even more had I not had a bad headache that day. There is always SOMETHING that ruins a good day. Grrrr. And, once again, I was shut out of the raffle prizes, although Veronica did win something (you go girl!). When you have like 10-15 prizes for some 1500 people, that is pretty damned good.
Time for bed! I can't wait til Friday when I am off and can sleep in again.
I love sleeping in. I wish I could do it everyday.
I am lazy. This is a known fact.
It seems like we went from summer straight to winter in just a few days. Just last week, it was still in the 90's and today, it was cold all day long...and rainy. The colder weather is a big break for the firefighters tackling that once-monster fire that has plagued Southern California for nearly a month. Gosh. One day I got off of work and the sky was orange and brown with smoke from the fire. I thought there was a fire here in town, but it was the smoke from the Day Fire, which started near Ojai nearly a month ago and has since burned over 162,000 acres (it was started by someone who was burning trash, and the fire got out of control). It came really close to Lake of The Woods and Frazier Park, which is near where I used to live. Pretty scary. The fire is now over 90% contained, so let's hope it gets put out really soon.
The break in the heat is a welcome relief to me, but I wasn't quite ready for the rain. Damn my bones ache. I hate the rainy season for that reason.
We had our 2nd annual Department All Staff at the Rabobank Arena on Friday. It was an all-day event. It went pretty well. I really liked the guest speakers (Antwone Fisher and Josh Shipp), and my 2 workshops were pretty good. I would have liked the whole event even more had I not had a bad headache that day. There is always SOMETHING that ruins a good day. Grrrr. And, once again, I was shut out of the raffle prizes, although Veronica did win something (you go girl!). When you have like 10-15 prizes for some 1500 people, that is pretty damned good.
Time for bed! I can't wait til Friday when I am off and can sleep in again.
I love sleeping in. I wish I could do it everyday.
Random Fact of The Day
When you walk down a steep hill, the pressure on your knees is equal to three times your body weight.
Funny Stuff From Dave Barry
"I like beer. On occasion I will even drink a beer to celebrate a major event such as the fall of communism or the fact that our refrigerator is still working. "
Stupid News Story of The Day
(There is a time to tattle, and this was not the time.)
Man allegedly tells police he stole pot
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - A man who police say was caught with two pounds of marijuana allegedly told officers the drug wasn't his because he stole it.
Bradley Robison, 18, of Cedar Rapids, was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and failure to affix a drug tax stamp.
When police found him with the marijuana, he said he had stolen it from a nearby business that he had just broken into, court records show.
Linn County Attorney Harold Denton said it doesn't matter how Robison got the marijuana — only that he had it.
"If you steal it, you steal it and you possess it," Denton said. "It's a double whammy."
Robison was caught by officers after they saw him running from the area early Tuesday, police said.
A burglary charge was being considered but had not been immediately filed.
The investigation also led to a possession with intent to deliver charge being filed against Ruban Rivas, 36, for allegedly having the marijuana at the business that Robison broke into, court records show.
Both men were taken to jail but later released.
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